COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATION OF SPHINGOID BASES AND FATTY-ACIDS IN CERAMIDES AND SPHINGOMYELINS FROM HUMAN OVARIAN MALIGNANT-TUMORS AND NORMALOVARY

Fatty acid and sphingoid base compositions of ceramides and sphingomye lins were investigated in malignant tumors and normal tissue of human ovaries. It has been established that fatty acid compositions of ceram ide and sphingomyelin isolated from one tissue are significantly diffe rent: the predominant acids are oleic (18:1) in ceramide and palmitic (16:0) in sphingomyelin, which contains much more other saturated acid s. These differences are characteristic of both normal and tumor tissu es. Sphingoid base compositions of ceramide and sphingomyelin in norma l tissue are identical: the major component is sphingenine (over 96%), while ceramides from tumors contain, in addition to sphingenine, a si gnificant amount of sphinganine. In sphingomyelins from tumors, sphing anine content is significantly lower than in ceramides and depends on the type of tumor.